Spencer woman’s death remains a mystery

The death of a 20-year-old woman at an apartment Wednesday is being labeled suspicious and her brother-in-law is being held on $100,000 cash bail on a charge he lied to police investigating the death.

Steven D. West, 21, of 13 Pleasant St., Spencer, was arraigned yesterday on a charge of intimidation of a witness, a broad statute that includes providing false information to police.

He was ordered held on $100,000 bail, though Assistant District Attorney Brett Dillon told Judge Paul Losapio in Western Worcester District Court in East Brookfield that it was too early in the investigation to determine whether Mr. West would face additional charges. He said Mr. West has ties to Indiana and has not lived in Massachusetts for very long. He said Mr. West did not appear to have an out-of-state criminal record.

According to court documents, Spencer police were called to the apartment Alyssa A. Haden shared with Mr. West and his wife, who is Ms. Haden’s twin sister, at around noon Wednesday. Town records show her name as Caitlin West.

Police said Ms. Haden’s brother, Donald Haden III, had discovered his sister’s body. A preliminary police report indicated she had “obvious signs of death” and a small wound on her neck.

Police wrote that she “had lividity inconsistent with the position of the body.” Such a discovery could mean the body had been moved.

Ms. Haden had been living with her pregnant sister, brother-in-law and their baby in the three-bedroom apartment. Her name appears on the mailbox, and Dee Rivers, who lives downstairs, said Ms. Haden had moved back in July, since being displaced by a fire at her parents home on Grove Street.

That fire, which was deemed arson, started in her bedroom and killed some family pets. There have been no arrests in that case.

Mr. West was at the scene of that fire and was carrying a cat in a carrier that had been rescued from the home as firefighters quickly brought the blaze under control.

Mrs. Rivers said she was at home Wednesday about noon when Donald Haden III came running downstairs from his sisters’ apartment.

“He was yelling, ‘My sister’s dead, my sister’s dead,’ ” she said, adding that he later told her Ms. Haden was in bed when he went to check on her after concerned co-workers from nearby Price Chopper supermarket called her mother to say the normally punctual cashier was not at work.

“He said he pulled the blankets back and she was purple,” Mrs. Rivers said.

While she heard nothing, save the normal sounds of chairs the night before, her husband heard someone leave the three-story house about 4 a.m., which was unusual.

When she encountered Mr. Haden, he asked for her cellphone and she started to head upstairs but he stopped her saying the police had told him no one should go back into the apartment.

“I’m a CNA (certified nurse’s assistant),” she said. “I wanted to check to see if I could do anything. I regret not going up there.”

After hearing Mr. West was held on a high bail, Mrs. Rivers said she was surprised and does not think that he would have harmed his sister-in-law. She said if police determine Ms. Haden was murdered, “someone else must have done it.”

She said Mr. West, who is very heavy, has breathing problems and cannot stand for long periods. He has had trouble finding work because of his obesity, she said, though she believed he had been working recently at a Walmart store.

Mrs. West also worked at Walmart, she said, and Ms. Haden was a popular cashier at the grocery store near their home.

“I’d go in there just to see her,” Mrs. Rivers said. “Just to see her smile, she had a smile. If you were having a bad day and you walked into a room where she happened to be, she’d smile and you’d feel better.”

The only problems Mrs. Rivers and her husband could recall were a few loud parties when the Wests moved in, along with some frustration because they weren’t tidy and often failed to bring out their trash.

“He’s a nice kid,” Mr. River said of Mr. West.

Court-appointed lawyer Michael Hussey said he had little information about whether the high bail, $1 million surety, was requested because investigators anticipate filing additional charges against Mr. West,

He said his client would have trouble posting a much lesser amount of bail because of his financial circumstances and said, “most intimidation of a witness cases don’t involve this set of circumstances.”

He said it was unclear to him what Mr. West had done to mislead police and whether the death was “a homicide, some other form of death or natural causes certainly seems uncertain at this time.”

Members of Ms. Haden’s family, including Mr. West’s wife, who is pregnant with her second child, quickly left court after the arraignment, shouting at reporters before driving away swiftly.

Mr. West, a heavy-set man, clad in a black, said nothing during the arraignment. He is due back in court Nov. 12.